Yearly Archives: 2017
Rigorous Study Finds Antidepressants Worsen Long-Term Outcomes
A new study conducted by Jeffrey Vittengl at Truman University has found that taking antidepressant medications resulted in more severe depression symptoms after nine years.
Dualism and the Mind-Body ‘Problem’
The proposal that there are differences in the way we understand the human body and human activity seems to make people particularly uneasy. It is often misunderstood as illustrating the ‘mind-body problem,’ and held up as an example of the great crime of ‘dualism.’
The Persistence of the Radioactive Bogeyman
From Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Since 1950, a noteworthy number of American and European horror movies have used radiation as a plot device. The...
The First Count of Fentanyl Deaths in 2016
From The New York Times: According to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to cover all of 2016, drug overdose deaths increased by...
Vikas Saini: Protecting Patients From Excessive Medicine
In this piece for the BMJ, Jeanne Lenzer profiles Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is working to fight against excessive medical treatment. His work with...
Investigation Reveals Alarming ECT Practices in England
Audit of ECT usage, demographics, and adherence to guidelines and legislation raises concern over its continued use.
Mortality of People Using Mental Health Services and Medications
153,451 deaths were registered in Australia in the period 10 August 2011 to 27 September 2012. 75,858 of these deaths were registered for persons who had accessed mental health-related treatments. These deaths accounted for 49.4% of all deaths in this period.
Pierre Janet and the History of Psychological Treatments
In this piece for Holistic Elephants, Bernard Guerin discusses Pierre Janet's book Psychological Healing: A Historical and Clinical Study, which describes a variety of mental health...
The Perspective of the Outside
From Red Wedge: Mark Fisher, an author and scholar known for analyzing mental health under neoliberal capitalism, took his own life this past January. His...
Dr. Gordon Warme: The Relationship Between Culture and Psychiatric ‘Disorders’
This week we interview Dr Gordon Warme on the dominance of biological psychiatry and the relationship between culture and psychiatric ‘disorders’.
What We Must Learn From the US Opioid Epidemic
From The BMJ: There is no doubt that America's opioid epidemic is a national crisis that needs to be addressed. However, we must be careful...
Researchers Probe Connections Between Physical Activity and ‘Severe Mental Illness’
How does physical activity affect people diagnosed with bipolar, schizophrenia and major depressive disorders?
The State of Animal Psychiatric Research
Since animal research is the foundation for moving on to clinical trials despite its poor quality, it is likely that this leads to many superfluous trials in humans based on false hopes. This leaves a risk of adverse events for the participants in the trials, and subsequently the patients.
Playing Up the Benefits of Play at Work
From the Association for Psychological Science: New research has found evidence that play at work is associated with less fatigue, boredom, stress, and burnout in...
How Norms Change
From The New Yorker: The extent to which we act on our biases is largely dependent upon the social norms within our surrounding environments, which...
Drug Dealers in Lab Coats
From The New York Times: For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on illicit drug dealers and drug lords. However, we have failed to...
Ending ECT: From a Lawsuit to a Novel – The Moment is Now!
In the midst of flagrant professional misrepresentation of ECT, this is a call to arms. Quite simply, the time has come for a frontal assault on the ECT industry and on the professionals associated with it. The time has come to rid society of this barbaric “treatment” altogether.
How UCLA is Fighting a Proxy Patent Battle in India
From The Wire: Xtandi, a life-prolonging cancer drug, currently does not have a patent in India, meaning that Indian cancer patients are able to access...
When the Revolution Came for Amy Cuddy
From The New York Times Magazine: The work of Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist best known for her research and viral TED talk on "power...
The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA
In this piece for The Washington Post, Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein investigate how a handful of members of Congress, allied with some of the nation's...
Scales Assessing Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Lack Cross-Cultural Validity
Researchers find few existing "psychopathology scales" are appropriate for global utilization.
Consciousness: An Object Lesson
In this interview for The New York Review of Books, Riccardo Manzotti puts forth a view of existence as relative. However, he argues, the fact that...
State Spends $90 Million on Unnecessary Mental Health Care
From the Star Tribune: Minnesota taxpayers have shelled out more than $92 million to house patients at a state psychiatric hospital who no longer require...
On the Myth of the Chemical Imbalance
In this piece for Psychology Today, Mark L. Ruffalo critiques the chemical imbalance theory of mental disorder and examines why the chemical imbalance myth persists today despite...
Admission: A Story of Solidarity and Survival
I survived not because I received excellent care from the staff on the ward. On the contrary, the treatment was objectifying and cold. It’s not surprising that many end up in suicide behind locked doors. I survived because I felt, however fleetingly, my experiences mirrored by others.
